She is Angie

I have always taken Thanksgiving for what it is. Food, Family, Fellowship. This year, I finally realized that we, as mankind have set aside a day to celebrate thankfulness. I think that is awesome. I am the first to be guilty of too much whining and being a “Negative Nancy.” As I told the boys in Juvenile Hall, usually the bad out weighs the good in our minds, but what if we intentionally focused on the good?

This thanksgiving I am taking a moment to write about the gift I am most thankful for. A year, 2 months, and 8 days ago, I was given the greatest gift (well, besides eternal life) I could ever have asked for. I was given my Jason.

Jason Daniel Merino: Beautiful, smart, loving, kind, caring, compassionate, happy, funny, makes me breakfast, gets me coffee, plays with my hair, does the dishes for me, texts me, calls me, holds me, laughs at my jokes, is as silly as I am, pushes me to grow, cares for my heart, defends my honor, loves me unconditionally, spends LOTS of time with me, the person I most love to be with, my best friend, my adventure partner, does anything for me, puts me above himself, wipes my tears, rubs my back, loves to tickle me, loves my morning hair, thinks I am the cutest, up for anything, loves me with all that he can.

This year, I am taking time to thank and honor my dear husband for all that he is to me.

Community. An attractive idea. Easier said than done. The opposite of isolation. A buzz word while living at Point Loma. Doing life with others. Making friends into family. Community.

Recently, Jason and I have decided to be crazy. We have made the decision to give community living a try. On December 1st we will move into a house with our friends Lexi and Stephanie and attempt to live out community at home.

We actually thought about taking this step about 6 months ago. We talked about it amongst ourselves and with Lexi and nothing really ever came of it. None of us were ready yet. Lexi posed the idea to us again and we sat down and talked and prayed and thought. Is this a step we could take right now?

We decided it is. Jesus talks so much about living together, eating together, being together in prayer, being one in spirit, being one in mind. As ones living out western culture we are taught that success means moving out and becoming self sufficient. Make it so you can survive all by your onsie. In a recent sermon Shawn Hayse made a great point. Satan loves for us humans to isolate ourselves. To think that we can, or have to do it all on our own. That’s when he gets in and tears us up.

We have decided to take this to the extreme. Why? Because we can! Community living is an idea that Jason and I have both been very attracted to. We feel like if we want to engage in it, this is the time. We are kid-less and lease-less. We are flexible. We are hungry to connect to the Kingdom of God. We love a good adventure!

Community…here we come!

So the summer has officially come to and end an I have learned one thing in particular. I am HORRIBLE at keeping up with blogging! Hopefully that will get better as time goes on.

My summer challenge was to not buy any apparel that wasn’t fair trade. I was successful, minus one purchase of shoes that was not fair trade that I bought with a gift card I received for my birthday.

I learned a lot of things. I learned that apparel made at a fair wage is expensive. This, therefore, lead to me not buying much that was new. I also learned that thrift store shopping is fun, but time consuming. Therefore, I did not buy much second hand clothing either, which brings me to my biggest takeaway of the summer. I don’t really need much.

I have decided to go back to buying all types of apparel but have learned something big. I don’t really need much to get by, and therefore shouldn’t be buying clothes just to buy them. My new, and ongoing challenge is to buy what I need, when I need it. I think that the current consumeristic attitude is one of the biggest factors driving the use of sweat shops and slave labor to manufacture apparel. Buy, Buy, Buy everything you want when you want it. You deserve it, and it will make you happy. I too, have lived this. We probably all have. It is time for a change.

Thank you all for joining me on this journey. Don’t think that She is Angie is going away. Stay tuned for more adventures yet to come!

So it has been awhile. Some of you might be thinking that I had given up on the challenge and was just too embarrassed to admit it…but I haven’t! We have been so busy and I’m still new to this blog thing so I apologize for not keeping things up to date.

Jason and I are still at the challenge! We have not bought any apparel made by slaves since Christmas ‘09. It has been HARD and frustrating for me. I am a girl grown up in American Culture. I have issues. I get the overwhelming desire to go shopping and buy new clothes! It almost feels like a need. This has been a huge period of reflection for me. I have been able to subdue the desire and press on because I can remember why I’m doing it. Justice. When I see clothes I like in a store I will look at the tag and see where it was made. Usually it is in a country known for slavery and sweatshops. I then have to count the cost. Do I need the clothing? Probably not. I would be buying it to fulfill some need that I am not allowing God to fill in me and in turn people are being abused because of my buy. Not worth it.

We have gotten creative. I bought my summer bathing suit on E-Bay. It was new with tags so it was questionable at first, but Jay and I decided that I wasn’t supporting the company, but the seller, so it was deemed to be legit. Also, a good friend of mine just gave me a bunch of hand me downs that are really more like hand me ups I seriously got almost a whole new wardrobe!

I think that God cares about me so much that even though he desires me to be content with anything/everything I have been given, he knows that I am still a human and a very slow learner sometimes. I have days of total contentment, but they are not often. I think that pushing myself like this is teaching my soul contentment.

Part of our efforts in abolishing modern day slavery has been fasting. The A21 Campaign is an organization that is doing work to abolish human trafficking. Check them out! They have a list of 21 things you can do to help and one of those things is to fast on the 21st of every month for the enslaved. Jason and I have chosen to do this.

Today was the 3rd time I have fasted for this cause and the 4th time I have fasted ever. I have always been very confused about fasting and not so sure I was into it. I fasted once in college for 48 hours before Easter to prepare my heart for the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. Mostly, in that 48 hours, I thought about what food I was going to eat when I was done.

I like fasting for a particular cause. Every time I felt hungry today or thought about my next meal, which was way more than I thought I did during a normal day, my heart turned instead to the people, right that moment, who were living in a different set of circumstances than I am. I wonder what those who are enslaved eat. I wonder how often they eat, or how much they eat. I wonder specifically about the young girls and women who are enslaved in the sex trade. What do they eat? Do they get to eat often? Do they even care what they eat? Is it even a priority?

I have heard someone say that your body, particularly your stomach, is like a spoiled child. When it doesn’t get what it wants it growls and throws a fit. Today my body did this. Around 1 pm I started getting a head ache that still hasn’t gone away. I found myself stuttering during one of my home visits and not quite able to get my thoughts straight. On top of all this, today was a not so great day. I kept thinking, “Ugh! Why today? Why am I fasting today, when it is a bad day and I am more stressed!” And then Jesus put me in check. The people who are enslaved and hungry…really hungry…today…right now… live lives of stress, anxiety, hurt, depression, and fear of magnitudes that I will probably never experience. And they don’t have anything to eat.

Fasting is what you make of it. There are no rules. Do what you are called to. Do something different that brings different thoughts, emotions, pains to your every day life. Break up your routine. Suffer with those who suffer.

Our first thrift store adventure was definitely a success and we cannot wait to go again. I even cleaned out my closet in anticipation of more treasures. Thrift store shopping was a blast, but may not be for everyone and may not be for me all the time. Luckily, buying second hand is not the only way to buy fair trade. There are things that I am not comfortable buying second hand: bathing suits, undies, etc. There are some things that I won’t be able to find second hand. I want to be able to shop fair trade with my apparel even when I buy things new.

This brings me to talking about buying first hand but fair trade. When I first started this project I only knew of one company that was fair trade. American Apparel. All of their clothing is made in the United States under the current labor laws. I do like some of the basics at American Apparel but mostly it is not my style. This lead to further research. I ended up finding some other web sites that sell fair trade clothing.

This site is through e-bay and is described as a market place for shopping fair trade. It is great. I’m not into all of their clothing but some of it is right up my alley, and will hopefully be up yours too.

http://worldofgood.ebay.com/

Shopping for new clothing is just as much of a treasure hunt. This is something that used to discourage me from shopping fair trade. I hated hunting. I didn’t even like shopping at discount stores because of this. It was just never worth it. Now it feels completely worth it because I am not trying to get the best deal for my pocket book but instead, the best deal for humanity.
At World of Good they only allow sellers who maintain a relationship with one of many trust providers. Check out the different providers here.

http://community.worldofgood.com/go/browse/users?tier_id=10706

Some other sites I have found that proclaim to be fair trade are here.

http://www.indigenousdesigns.com/

http://www.fairindigo.com/

It is all much more expensive than I am used to paying for clothing. I guess this means that it will be more about quality than quantity.

Shoes! Who doesn’t love shoes? My dearest husband and partner in crime, Jason, recently bought me my newest pair of TOMS. If you don’t know, TOMS is a shoe store that gives a pair of shoes to a child who needs them for every pair that is bought. Their shoes are made in China but by workers who are paid a fair wage. This one of the places to buy shoes fair trade.
TOMSshoes.com

If you find other places that are selling fair trade please share them!

I feel as though this journey is still just beginning.

On March 20, 2010, Jay and I set out to Chico, CA to check out some thrift stores that some co-workers had told me about. The first was Thrifty Bargain, on the Esplanade. We walked in and I immediately felt overwhelmed. Instead of being sectioned off by styles and sizes, there were rows and rows and rows of clothes. It was discouraging at first and I almost gave up. Seriously. I realized at that moment that this was going to be work. Hunting really. Jason and I decided to divide and conquer. I ended up finding a skirt and shirt that are totally work appropriate. I also found a casual thermal, and I do love thermals. Jason found a very nice gray sweater and basic T-Shirt. Total, we spent $15.00.

I do love thermals!

The next stop was at the Salvation Army in downtown Chico. I was feeling much more confident and found pieces right away. I came away with a dress, two weekend wearable tank tops, a work appropriate shirt, and another skirt! Jason also found another fabulous gray sweater! I realized that buying pants second hand will be difficult as I wear a long inseam, but I will keep looking! Jason also found a book that both of us have been wanting to read. Total we spent $20.00 at the Salvation Army.

We spent a total of $35.00 that day and came away with 2 work appropriate shirts, 2 work appropriate skirts, 2 weekend wearable tank tops, a dress, two sweaters, a t-shirt, a thermal, and a book. Not bad!

We came home and tried them all on and EVERYTHING fit and will work. I have already worn most of it. Blessed? I do think so.

weekend wearable tank top

work shirt from Salvation Army and skirt from Thrifty Bargain

work shirt from Thrifty Bargain, work skirt from Salvation Army

weekend tank top

cute dress

Gatsby wanted to help too. He is so concerned with justice…

Jason’s finds

grey sweater from Thrifty Bargain

another gray sweater from Salvation Army

basic t-shirt from Thrifty Bargain
Over all, we had a great day! It is kind of like a treasure hunt! Can’t wait to go again!

I have known about the use of sweat shops and child labor/slaves to make clothing for at least 2 1/2 years. I have finally felt convicted that I must stop supporting this. Recently I have been part of a movement against human trafficking. I am becoming an abolitionist and I love it! Through learning more about the 25 million slaves in existence right this moment it has come to my attention that I must change my shopping patterns. This is going to be hard.

The Project: This will last through the summer of 2010. It will include clothing and shoes. I will either purchase from fair trade clothing manufactures, or second hand. I figure that if I am buying things second hand, I am not supporting the manufacturer but whoever is re-selling the item.

This is going to be hard. What I wear has always been important to me. When I was a child I was teased a lot, and much of it was because of my second hand wardrobe.  This will be a step of faith. God has told me that if I am faithful in this that I will be blessed.

Partner in Crime: Jason will be my partner in this project. It only made sense for him to help me as he is my biggest fan, encouragement, and supporter. He will be shopping with me and he built this beautiful web page! He loves me so much!

Adventure, here we come!

Hello! My name is Angie Merino. I live in Oroville, CA with my most amazing husband of 6 months,  who built me this beautiful website. I hope to create evidence of a journey of seeking peace and love through Jesus Christ and attempting to share that with humanity around me.